Everyone knows that college football is a big business generating millions of dollars in television revenues, ticket sales, and merchandising opportunities. Football also serves to solidify relations with alumni increasing donations and philanthropy.
College football, particularly during bowl season, also raises a lot of money for charity and sometimes this directly affects women. Case in point is the recent AutoNation Cure Bowl held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, between Georgia State University and Western Kentucky University. All proceeds from the game were donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the largest private organization dedicated to breast cancer research in the world. The foundation spends 91 cents for every dollar received directly on research.
This year, the AutoNation Cure Bowl raised $3,305,000 for breast cancer research. Almost $1 million of the money raised will support the research of Annette Khaled, a professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Medicine at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Dr. Khaled’s research has discovered a peptide that has shown promise in halting breast cancer cells from metastasizing.
Dr. Khaled stated that “thanks to this game we can continue discovering and investigating. We’re making great progress. And that should give cancer patients and survivors great hope.”